Video: Military robot can throw cinder blocks, grenades

Arm can fling 50-pound concrete blocks

Boston Dynamics, the robotics company behind AlphaDog, Petman, and Cheetah, has now outfitted its BigDog robot with an arm that’s capable of flinging 50-pound (23kg) concrete blocks across a room at high speed.

This really is as terrifying as it sounds — but if you don’t trust me, watch the video below. BigDog was originally the precursor to the AlphaDog Legged Squad Support System (LS3), which is currently undergoing final testing before its first deployment with the US Marines.

With this video, though, it seems that BigDog has now become some kind of prototype platform for Boston Dynamics’ wild and frankly insane ideas — such as tossing cinder blocks across a room.

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